Casting Call For "Jealousy"!

This is a casting call for "Jealousy", an audio drama produced by "The Spirit Blade Underground Alliance"!

This is a one-shot feature. (Not a series. One, then done.) The story is a post-apocalyptic murder mystery written by Malcolm Cowen! A small community is struggling to survive after a deadly disease wipes out most of the earth's population. But when a mysterious outsider visits the village one night, the outcome is murder. Without an established legal system, this small group of survivors has to determine how they will find the truth, and what they will do when they find it.

The script features some brief, mild "swearing". You may request a copy of the script to examine the specific words used by contacting me at:
paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)net



Please record your audition at 128kbps or higher in mp3, or use wav file format.
All auditions should be sent via Yousendit (www.yousendit.com) to:
no1soulie(at)hotmail(dot)com

***Yousendit is a FREE online file transfer service. Please remember to make use of it. Do not send your file directly to
the e-mail listed.***

Please use the following format when naming your audition files:
YourName_CharacterName_JealousyAUD.mp3

All lines for each character audition should be in one file. However, please submit a separate file for each character you audition for. You may send multiple files separately or in one compressed folder. In either case, PLEASE make use of yousendit.

If a role requires yelling or screaming, please take measures(lower recording levels, increase
distance from microphone, etc.) to avoid distortion in your recordings. Your
ability to do this will have an impact on whether or not you are cast for these kinds of roles.

***Auditions are due by Saturday, April 9th.***

Below are brief character descriptions and the lines to use in your audition.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at: paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)net

Thanks and have fun!


-Paeter Frandsen







DAVID- Old man, voluntary chaplain to the group. Mildly old fashioned evangelical. Works building up the community's information database. Think of Cadfael or Father Brown.




David [URGENT BREAKIN] I’m sorry Janice, It’s David here. I’m at Kathy and Chris’s farm and I need to interrupt your radio school. We’ve got a problem, and I need to speak to the Chairman of the Council urgently.

David [HURRIED] Hugh, I don’t want to say too much over the radio, but I’m still at Chris and Kathy’s farm. We’ve found a body, it’s a woman. She’s been murdered and it’s a stranger.
David [BLUNTLY] Her throat’s smashed in, looks like she’s been strangled. I need someone who can deal with this better than I can.
David [OCCASIONAL PAUSES AS HE WALKS DOWN A MUDDY LANE]There’s one more thing to show you at the back entrance to the farm. If you follow me, but be careful how you tread. I checked everywhere outside for footprints. Most of the ground in the yard is fairly dry, so there’s no marks except for Claire’s galoshes running back to the house through that patch of mud by the gate. Mind that muddy patch there.








KATHY- Self-taught farmer. Young woman, early 30's. Rotten childhood. Dad abandoned family. No Christian contact. Fell to bits after the plague. Rescued by David, became a Christian, rebuilt her life. Now sees her old life coming back through recent events, and is scared.


Audition Lines:
And then David found me. I was lying in a hotel room just crying, and he cleaned me up, and got proper food into me, and he was so kind.
So when I got better I just offered myself to him, because I thought you should. And he just kissed me on the forehead and said “No, because that kind of thing is so important that when I take someone to love it’s a commitment for life, and you’re in no state to make any commitments right now. And besides I’m an old man, and you’re a young girl. If there’s two of us left, then there must be others, and you should be with a younger man than me”. And I didn’t know what to do, so I just hung on to him and cried. No man’s ever said that to me before. And that’s why I love him so much, he’s like my Dad should have been to me.








CHRIS- Self-taught farmer. Young man, Kathy's husband, late 20s. Decent young Christian man. Loves Kathy (And knows all about her past). He'll stand by her no matter what.




Chris No. I know Steve and Sandra were upset they didn’t get appointed leaders for this new settlement, but as far as I’m concerned they’re our partners, not our underlings or something. And in any case once we’ve been here two years and have got more than eight of us in the settlement my job will be an elected one anyway. And I’d be quite happy to step down for Steve then. And even if someone resented us, what’s that got to do with killing this stranger?


[INTERRUPTING] .. but you’d had a bad time. I know. But that was before, before we met, before the plague, before everything, it was another world. So forget it, what matters is us and now.

[LOUDER] I just want to make one thing plain, if this means Kathy gets exiled from the group, then I go with her. I made her a promise for better or worse, and I made it because I love her, and I keep my promises.

[ALSO SCARED BUT TRYING TO BE THE BIG STRONG HUSBAND] It’s all right, I’m here and I’m staying with you.










CLAIRE- Researcher. Young woman, early late 20's, in love with Chris. Shallow. Previously she was a pretty good person, but only because she has never faced a challenge. The truth is she has no real faith.


[BLUNTLY] You mean when we had a big fight, and I acted like a complete bitch to her? Yes, and I was out of order. Chris has the right to choose who he wants to marry, and I’ve got to accept that.

Kathy told me the tools and things were all in the outhouse, but I should use the galoshes, because of the mud. So I went to the outside washroom and put the galoshes on, then Kathy and I went inside the outhouse, and that’s when I saw the body. At first I thought it was someone who’d fainted, so I bent down to see who it was. Then I saw the marks on her neck, and then I realised she was dead. I suppose I panicked a bit, and ran out and back to the farm kitchen to get help.

[DEEP GRIEF] Oh no. Not Kathy, she can’t have, it must be a mistake








OWEN- Young man, early 20's, former boyfriend of Kathy. Decent young man, a bit shy.




Owen Yes, I used to be fairly close to Kathy before she started seeing Chris, but that was when she was still working at the Centre. I’d not seen her at all since she moved out here.

Owen Well the wedding seemed to go off okay. David presided and they made their promises to each other. Then we had a party. I must admit I found it a bit hard to join in, but I tried my best. I think I probably drank too much, which was pretty stupid of me. Then we all went to bed in the barn, except for Kathy and Chris who were in their new bedroom in the farm. I think I had Chris’s old bed and Claire had Kathy’s. Then Claire got me up about nine and I was going over for breakfast, when Claire came running past me into the house saying she’d found a body. And that’s it really.









HUGH- Oldish man, leader of Council. Ex-Army. He kept a small group in quarantine through the plague. When he found there was no civilian authority to report to he decided his duty was create a civilian government and then submit his command to it. He then found himself alected as the first Chairman of his new Government - the Council.




Hugh: She says there was a knock on the door, and when she opened it she recognised Theresa at once. Her first reaction was horror at something from her past.
Then Kathy decided that since she’d changed since then, maybe Theresa could have changed as well, so she invited her in. But when Theresa got talking Kathy wasn’t very happy. Theresa just kept on harking back to what happened ten years ago. Kathy said she was beginning to feel scared by her, so she told Theresa the best thing to do was to come to the Centre here and make contact with the Council directly.
As far as Kathy knew, that’s what she was going to do. Well, until a few hours later Theresa turns up dead.

[TAKING CHARGE] I think you’d better tell me.








HELENA- Doctor, Council member. mid 30's. Previously a nurse, she's the only medical survivor. Has read up text books to teach herself to be a doctor and is now training others. Committed to what she does, but aware of her own limitations. A decent honorable woman whose personality has been strengthened by trial. She's a sincere agnostic who respects David's faith.



(With distaste) Well you’re right, as far as I can see. She was strangled, by having a something pressed down over her throat. Presumably this rake, because if I hold the wood up against her throat you can see how the marks line up.
[PAUSE] That’s odd, there’s another wound as well, looks like she was hit on the back of the head by something blunt and possibly padded. There’s a small cut, a bit of bleeding, and a definite depression in the skull. Pretty strong force, this might even have killed her by itself. At a guess I’d say this was used to stun her, then the rake was used to finish her off.

THOUGHTFULLY]Untrodden clear ground, with just one line of recent tracks. I’ll check, but they look about right for her shoes. So she was alone. Unless... is there any other way in?






STEVE- Farmer, early 30's. Son of a farmer. Decent young man, knows about farming but still a bit immature. He grows through the plot.

[INTERRUPTING] No, we understand. You’re going to ask is there any bad feeling from us towards Kathy and Chris because they got appointed to lead this new settlement, and we didn’t?

Obviously we both felt disappointed with the Council’s decision, especially seeing we were both brought up on a farm, and they weren’t. But, well there’s probably not more than a few thousand people left in the entire country, and two hundred of them in our group of settlements. The way I look at it I can’t afford to fall out with anyone, there’s too few of us as it is.






The following are smaller roles that may be given to existing cast members. For characters without audition lines, please use lines for another character in your audition.







SANDRA- Farmer, Steve's wife. Decent young woman, about 30.




Sandra Our half of the farmhouse isn’t weatherproofed yet, so we’ve build ourselves a temporary bedroom just inside the barn door. Until last night, Kathy had a sort of alcove at the back of the barn and Chris slept in the loft. For last night we made some temporary sleeping areas in the loft for David and Owen, out of Chris’s old area, and used Kathy’s old place for Claire.





Janice- Teacher, on community radio.

3 Children- Being taught by Janice

Otto- Young researcher working for Helena.(Can be male or renamed as female)